EVENTS

Upping the ante on political hate

With Donald Trump cornering the market on Mexican-hate, it looks like Ben Carson has decided that Muslim-hate will be his own vote-getting message with the frothing-at-the-mouth crowd. But this time, when he was called to account by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, instead of whining about political correctness that has become his trademark, he went even further and urged that the IRS should investigate the CAIR, showing that, like most hatemongers, he can dish it out but can’t take it.

A recap: after Carson’s appearance on “Meet the Press” in which he described Islam as inconsistent with the Constitution, Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued the following response: “You cannot hold these kinds of views and at the same time say you will represent all Americans, of all faiths and backgrounds.” Seems reasonable enough!

According to Carson, via this statement the organization has “brazenly violated IRS rules” and the agency should “properly do its job and punish the real violators of America’s laws and regulations.”

Hooper’s response to this petition:

“We find it interesting that Dr. Carson seeks to use a federal government agency to silence his critics and wonder if that tactic would be used to suppress First Amendment freedoms should he become president.”

Is that what Carson’s doing, though? Or is it instead that the only wind in his sails is his apparent willingness to stoke anti-Muslim sentiments among lunatic conservatives? Hmmmm.

Meanwhile Trevor Noah on The Daily Show examines some of the remarks made by Donald Trump and finds close parallels to statements by some African leaders, including terrible despots, and suggests that if Trump becomes president, he may qualify for the label of the first African president, following the first African-American president.

(This clip aired on October 1, 2015. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Nightly Show outside the US, please see this earlier post. If the videos autoplay, please see here for a diagnosis and possible solutions.)

Trump has uncultured, boundless, unstructured, flamboyancy down. He has the gigantic hyper-inflated ego. In his own mind he is a talismanic force that restructures things just by being present … it will be huge, and great, and everyone will love it. Like water into wine and feeding the multitude with a seven loaves and seven fishes. Both magical and miraculous … but entirely without process or mechanism.

He is the magic bullet, the cure-all, an all-powerful talisman. He is the Donald, and he will cure what ails us.